Obstructive Sleep Apnea Severity, Circulating Biomarkers, and Cancer Risk

Overview

Journal J Clin Sleep Med

Specialties Neurology
Psychiatry

Date 2024 Apr 22

PMID 38648119

Authors

A J Hirsch Allen

Tetyana Kendzerska

Parveen Bhatti

Rachel Jen

Renelle Myers

Mohammadreza Hajipour

Stephan F van Eeden

Najib Ayas

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Study Objectives: To determine whether obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity and/or biomarkers of inflammation/angiogenesis are associated with incident cancer in this clinical cohort.

Methods: Consenting adult patients at the University of British Columbia Hospital between 2003 and 2014 completed a questionnaire about their medical history and sleep habits prior to undergoing a polysomnogram. Blood samples were collected the morning after polysomnography and processed for biomarkers of inflammation and angiogenesis. The clinical, polysomnography, and biomarker data were linked to the British Columbia Cancer Registry to ascertain incident cancer diagnoses. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to assess the association between OSA severity and biomarker concentrations with cancer risk.

Results: A total of 1,990 patients were included in the analysis with a mean follow-up time of 12.8 years; 181 of them (9.1%) developed cancer after polysomnography. OSA severity was significantly associated with cancer risk after controlling for relevant covariates (hazard ratio = 1.08 per 10 events/h apnea-hypopnea index increase, confidence interval = 1.02-1.15, = .015). In an exploratory analysis, 2 biomarkers were significantly associated with an increased cancer risk after controlling for relevant covariates (hazard ratio per interquartile range pg/mL increase of endostatin = 1.45, confidence interval = 1.12-1.87, = .01 and hazard ratio for interquartile range pg/mL increase of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 = 1.48, confidence interval = 1.04-2.11, = .03, respectively).

Conclusions: OSA severity was an independent risk factor for cancer. Furthermore, 2 circulating markers were significantly associated with cancer risk. If these preliminary findings can be reproduced in other cohorts, biomarkers could potentially be used to prognosticate patients with OSA with respect to cancer risk.

Citation: Hirsch Allen AJ, Kendzerska T, Bhatti P, et al. Obstructive sleep apnea severity, circulating biomarkers, and cancer risk. . 2024;20(9):1415-1422.

Citing Articles

Exploring the pharmacological mechanisms for alleviating OSA: Adenosine A2A receptor downregulation of the PI3K/Akt/HIF‑1 pathway (Review).

Ma N, Liu P, Li N, Hu Y, Kang L Biomed Rep. 2024; 22(2):21.

PMID: 39720297 PMC: 11668141. DOI: 10.3892/br.2024.1899.

Does the severity of obstructive sleep apnea increase the risk of cancer? Clues in apnea-hypopnea index and biomarkers.

Verma R, Prasad V, Grewal H J Clin Sleep Med. 2024; 20(9):1403-1404.

PMID: 38958054 PMC: 11367721. DOI: 10.5664/jcsm.11270.

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